Event
Summary
"EMERYVILLE,
Calif., Nov. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Sybase, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYBS) today announced
a comprehensive, multi-year licensing, technology and service agreement with
MicroStrategy Incorporated (Nasdaq: MSTR). The alliance offers customers MicroStrategy's
Intelligent E-Business software coupled with customer relationship management
(CRM) and business performance management (BPM) applications. Under the terms
of the partnership, Sybase will embed and re-market MicroStrategy Intelligent
E-Business Platform for the Industry Warehouse Studios (IWS) offerings; thereby
leveraging MicroStrategy's core analysis, personalization, and broadcast technology
within Sybase's complement of analytical CRM and BPM applications". As stated
by Eric Miles, senior vice president and general manager of Sybase's Business
Intelligence Division, "As Sybase expands its growth in the business intelligence,
CRM and BPM markets, it is critical to form strategic partnerships with companies
that share our vision".
Each
of the Sybase Industry Warehouse Studios consists of five analytical customer
relationship management applications and one industry-specific module. The suite
of six applications, designed for sophisticated, business performance management
and customer relationship management include marketing campaign analysis, customer
profile analysis, sales analysis, loyalty analysis, customer care analysis,
and business performance management (the vertical component which delivers operational
scorecards and analytical reports).
MicroStrategy
powered versions of the Sybase Industry Warehouse Studios for Property & Casualty
and Life Insurance, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Retail Banking, Credit Card
Companies, and Capital Markets will be available during the first quarter of
2000 on UNIX and NT platforms. Industry Warehouse Studio applications start
at $100,000 (US).
Market
Impact
According to Sybase "The Company is leveraging core enterprise product strengths
to capitalize on the emerging enterprise portal market to provide powerful new
solutions that deliver on the promise of e-Business." Due to their decreasing
hold on the overall database market, Sybase is attempting to focus vertically
in an attempt to improve their profitability. (Sybase saw share value decrease
44% in 1998, revenues have decreased for the last two years, and they have suffered
four years of negative earnings per share). MicroStrategy has been very successful
in the portal arena, and their stock has appreciated over 300% in the last three
months alone (at the time of this writing, the stock was selling at $94 per
share). In addition to this agreement, MicroStrategy has also announced alliances
with Unisys and NCR. If Sybase is successful in leveraging this marketing relationship,
it should help restore some market confidence in the firm.
User
Recommendations
Companies with specific needs for these vertical market applications should
investigate the Sybase Industry Warehouse Studio product offering. Tight integration
with MicroStrategy will provide synergies in terms of metadata management and
business intelligence. However, we believe attention must be paid to Sybase's
on-going commitment to the relational database management industry, and also
to their financial viability.